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How to Build a Motorcycle Toolkit That Works

How to Build a Motorcycle Toolkit That Works

Adventure Rider Radio – Motorcycle Podcast Apr 03, 2026 61 min
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About this episode

Riders break down how to build a motorcycle toolkit that actually covers the repairs you’re likely to face on adventure rides—without hauling a random shopping-list of tools. Clinton Smout shares real roadside/trail experience, emphasizing planning by common failure points (flats, drivetrain/clunks, electrical gremlins, leaks/radiators, crash damage) and practicing wheel removal at home. He also covers organization (tool rolls, labeled pouches, keeping fasteners contained) plus “forgotten” essentials like headlamps, gloves, tarps, first aid, JB Weld, zip ties, safety wire, and basic lighting/cutting supplies. The episode ends with a look at Obsidian Adventure Gear’s model-specific compact toolkit concept, built around modular, low-bulk tools and a replaceable reciprocating saw blade.

Topics: toolkit planning by likely repairs flat tire and wheel removal tools pump reliability for bead seating tool organization and labeled pouches practice repairs at home for confidence crash repair essentials (jb weld, zip ties, gorilla tape) electrical and coolant leak contingencies headlamp, gloves, tarp, first aid basics safety wire and valve stem spares compact commercial toolkit design (obsidian adventure gear)
Select text to request an explanation
A lot of riders think they've got a motorcycle tool kit sorted, but in many cases it's just
guesswork.
You know, a few tools thrown together, maybe based on somebody else's list or something
someone has told them, and a hope that what they've got is going to cover anything that
goes wrong.
Well, on this episode, we're going to give you a much better way to think about it.
We're going to walk through how to figure out exactly what tools your motorcycle actually
needs, how to build a kit that suits your bike and your riding style, and how to avoid
carrying a bunch of stuff that you don't need while at the same time missing something
that's important.
It's actually a pretty straightforward process, and it's something that you can sort out in
an afternoon once you know how to approach it.
We'll also get into some extra gear items and working supplies that can make all the
difference on the side of the road or on the side of a trail.
And we're going to look at one commercial tool kit designed around the same idea of
keeping things compact, organized, and practical.
I'm Jim Martin.
This is Adventure Rider Radio.
Stay with us.
We'll get a good one for you.
Experience riders choose the cycle pump tire inflator made by Best Rest Products
for one reason, because they can count on it when they pull that out of their pannier,
no matter what.
They're so tough, they're warrantied for life.
Best Rest has loads of other motor specific products like the Hex Wrench, which is a combination
tire iron slash wrench, and they're known for their top quality tire plugs and patch
kits.
More at cyclepump.com.
And Green Chilli Adventure Gear offers American made heavy duty luggage systems for all types
of motorcycles.
You can turn any dry bag into luggage using their strapping system.
And of course, Green Chilli Adventure Gear is tested in extreme weather and terrain to
withstand the abuse that Adventure Riding gives it.
Tough, reliable gear, GreenChilliADV.com.
We're talking about toolkits for adventure motorcycles today, although this could apply
to any motorcycle, because the process of putting the toolkit together is going to be
much the same.
If you've ever thought about putting together a good toolkit for your bike, or maybe wondering
if the toolkit that you have is really built properly, or you're not really sure what should
go in the toolkit, this episode is about understanding how to figure out what you need for your bike
and your ride, as well as how to prepare for the unexpected things that happen.
And of course, there's lots of those on the road or on the trail.
To start that off, I want to bring in Clinton Smout.
Clinton has a lot of experience wrenching on the road, along with being an instructor.
He leads commercial trips several times a year.
And between those trips and the training he does through his school, he's dealt with all
kinds of trailside repairs, from the small stuff to some fairly complicated fixes that
I think very few of us would even tackle.
Clinton, welcome back.
Hello, Jim.
Well, this is the time of year where I know you get new motorcycles in for your school.
I understand you just got a batch of new BMW motorcycles in.
Have you been out for a ride yet?
Yes.
I did manage to get a short ride in yesterday with some of the new bikes.
We put the crash guards on and switched the mirrors, things like that.
And we thought it's not that cool.
Let's go for a short ride.
So two instructors and I went out for a couple of hours.
It was amazing.
So when you went out for your ride yesterday, what did you take for a toolkit?
I had my little fanny pack that I use when I'm teaching.
And so that's got just the very basics, not like what I'd have at home in the shop, but
I could take a wheel off.
I could tighten up a battery, stuff like that.
But we didn't anticipate having any issues because the bikes were literally zero kilometers
on them.
So we were hoping they didn't break down and nothing did.
But it's good to have a few with you.
I thought I was going to catch you there because I know you're riding brand new bikes.
I know it's the inaugural ride for the bike.
I thought you would just take nothing with you.
But in Clinton's fashion, you still had your toolkit with you.
What's the Boy Scout adage, Jim?
Oh, yeah, always be prepared.
Something like that.
Yeah, that's right.
And that's so true.
Well, the first question we should probably ask is why carry a toolkit at all?
Because if you're only riding the street, really you could get by with just your whatever
vehicle towing option you have and have somebody just come and tow your bike.
But it leaves you on the side of the road waiting.
Yeah, that's true.
And I agree.
You know, you're within cell phone range and have some very basic tools.
But if I really needed it or something catastrophic happened to the bike and I can't fix it,
it'd be great to have a phone and a tow within, you know, a reasonable weight.
But there's simple little things that could go wrong that rather than inconvenience a tow truck
and have to wait on the side of the road, I could fix it myself.
Yeah, we're talking about adventure, motorcycling.
And you need to be somewhat self-sufficient because we're always going off on dirt roads
and you could end up anywhere.
So for our scope of conversation today, what we're talking about is adventure,
motorcycling where you're pushing a little bit.
And of course, the farther you go off the beaten track, the more remote you're going to be,
the more prepared you would have to be.
We don't necessarily have to carry a toolkit for us to use.
Like if you were on the side of the road and you maybe maybe you're a little bit unsure
of how to get your wheels off, but at least you've got the tools and somebody else comes along.
That's true. A lot of us get out of tight spots by the generosity of a good Samaritan coming by,
but if they don't come by, depending on how far out you are, you're in trouble.
I want to start first with the mindset for packing tools for a motorcycle.
It's very easy to look for small kits that you can buy and figure,
I'll buy a three eighths drive kit and I'll buy some screwdrivers and then I'll pack all this stuff
into the motorcycle.
But the problem with that is the motorcycle, as we all understand, is limited in space
and the amount of weight that we want to carry.
So it's far more efficient to take only the tools that you need for the repair.
Now, the trick is figuring that out in advance and that's what we're going to work through right now.
So instead of thinking of lists of tools or as tool kits,
the more efficient way to look at it is through the repairs that we may have to do,
the jobs that we may have to do on the trail or on the side of the road,
or that we'll want to do.
So let's start there. What sort of things can we expect?
What sort of things would be the common things that most riders are going to have to deal with?
Drive train issues if we encompass tires in that.
So flat tires, torn tires, followed probably by those poor people that have changed.
You have changed, don't you?
For final drive, yeah, yeah.
Those people have troubles where after three or four days it's slapping together
and there's clunking going on and things like that.
So drive train is the big issue.
What other things, other problems that you've fixed on the side of the road?
Well, electrical issues could be as simple as the two 10-mil little screws that hold
the wires onto your battery terminals.
They vibrate loose if they weren't torqued enough or maybe didn't have a lock washer.
Little simple things like that.
Rad issues or maybe you've, something's hit the oil pan and you've got a crack in it and a small
leak.
So leaks or we've talked about one of our favorite products, that JB Weld.
Miracle adhesive kind of stuff that will repair many things.
I fixed rads.
One guy at the arm on his glasses broke off and I fixed it with JB Weld.
The hinge still worked.
It's pretty cool.
Coolant is I think a real possibility for anybody with any bike, even a brand new bike.
That's probably the biggest one.
Yes and an option on most adventure bikes is a rad guard.
So it's usually metal, aluminum is the lightest and most popular and it's perforated with all
kinds of holes so the air gets through to the rad.
The rad is really that Achilles heel of that bike.
You can't run a bike if there's no coolant in it.
It'll seize, you'll wreck your engine.
So you got to be able to fix that leak.
So leaks also crash damage and anything that's loose or bent or broken or jam parts stick jammed
into the chain or something like that.
Those are other things.
Yes, just you're talking about chains.
What we encounter every now and then at the off-road course is the chain jumps off.
So as you say, a stick gets up in the drivetrain and the chain may jump off and it sometimes
jams up on the shaft that holds the swing arm onto the back of the engine
or it jams up at the front counter shaft sprocket.
That can be a real challenge.
You almost need a hammer and a big flathead screwdriver or chisel to break that loose
to get it workable again.
You mentioned drivetrain wheels and tires.
I think that's probably the first thing that we should address.
I think a flat is probably one of the most common things that everyone's going to deal with,
don't you think?
Yes, I agree.
It has been for us.
Yeah, I think it has to be.
I mean, I think most people have run into some sort of tire issue.
And speaking of that, actually, I want to mention about a pump because this is an area
where people will often go cheap.
And I think it's a big mistake.
And you'll find out if it hasn't happened to you yet.
It'll be when you're on the side of a trail.
You buy a cheap pump.
It works fine at home.
You top up your tire or whatever.
You get on a trail somewhere where you're having trouble seeding the bead and you're
running the pump for a long period of time.
That's when they crap out.
I've had it happen several times before I learned my lesson.
And of course, I've said it before that the best rest cycle pump is my pump of choice
for two reasons.
One is durability, which is very, very reliable, well-built pump.
The other one is it puts out a large volume of air.
And that large volume of air is paramount for seeding a bead, in particular a bead
when you're having trouble with it.
And you won't find that a most small pump.
So that's why I prefer that one.
So okay, so we're talking about repairing our tires.
So repair the tires on a tube type tire.
You got to remove the wheels.
I know you don't with the tubeless style, at least not unless there's severe damage.
But let's talk about removing the wheel because that's the big mechanical thing we have to do.
So what sort of tools are we looking at to remove our wheels?
Let's start there.
Well, most bikes, especially bigger adventure bikes, you need a really big axle nut wrench.
So on the BMW I did tires on last week, it was a 32 millimeter wrench.
That's a big honking nut.
That means that wrench is about 14 inches long, the one I have.
That's not a tool I would carry with me.
It's just too big, too heavy.
So I have an adjustable wrench.
And I hate using them because you get them as tight as you can with your thumb turning
that little dial, but there's still some slack there, isn't there?
And if nothing else, you'll take the coating off of that nut or you may even round it a little.
And that's something that I hate doing, but you know, it's an emergency.
That's the only tool I have.
And so for bigger nuts and bolts, which are usually axles, I use the big adjustable wrench.
There's another solution that we have for that that we'll actually, I'll end up talking about
after you and I talk about this, as far as a toolkit goes and some commercial kits that you
can buy. And there's combination wrenches, right? You can get the ones that are combination wrench,
like spoon, tire spoon, as well as a wrench on the other end, a closed end wrench.
Okay, so we need things to take off the wheels and to do an actual tire change.
So the ideal situation is we would do this at home, right?
Yes, that will really help if you know that from in the garage before you go on the trip,
figure out what specific tools you need and how to work them. And as you said, I would practice,
I wonder how many people have ever pulled their wheels off just for the experience of knowing
how to do it. You've got to figure that stuff out at home so you're not on the side of the road
wondering how to do it. And to give you the confidence, a lot of places now will have a
community college motorcycle basic maintenance course. We have one for adventure bike roadside
repairs, we call it. And that's the kind of thing that people I think should invest some time in.
And they get an idea of maybe some tools and little gadgets that we've talked about that
they could carry with them. But more importantly, the hands on experience and confidence that they
could change a tire or fix a flat or change a battery or boost someone properly and safely.
That's the best experience. You can't watch a YouTube video on how to do a tire and then
just replicate it. And by the way, when you're taking your wheels off and you're writing down the
tools that you're using to do that stuff, do the same thing with the body panels.
Take off any body panels that you need to remove as well, like to get at the battery or something.
Quite often that's only one extra tool, maybe a Phillips screwdriver, maybe a Torx bit.
But if you need to get to the battery or the wiring or anything tucked behind that,
that one missing tool will just stop you dead. Be very frustrating. So make sure you have whatever
it is you need to get the body panels off. Now, something else that goes along with a toolkit,
but you probably don't really think about when you think of putting together a toolkit,
is organization and how that can impact working on the motorcycle. So can you talk about organization?
Yeah. So I first started traveling on these commercial trips with my buddy Clint leading,
and I'm the guy at the back. And once it was an actual job, I would pack what I thought I would
need and bits and pieces, and it's changed and grown over the years. But the first year,
I had a very sturdy helmet bag, if you can envision that size, they're zippered,
and it has pockets on the side. I just threw all the tools in their gym. So without fail,
the tool I needed was at the very bottom. So imagine you're on the side of a highway.
It's gravel. It's raining. You got to pull all those tools out. Everything's getting soaked
while you look for the one that was at the bottom. So I evolved into, slowly, I find these small
little vinyl pouches, and I label them with a paint marker. One of them has three set suppliers in it.
A side cutter, a small vice grip, and a needle nose. Another pack has all my kind of crash repair
goodies in there. Tape safety wire, electrical tape, zip ties, stuff like that. Another one
is just for tires. That's the biggest little vinyl thing I have. So I think there's six
little packages of goodies. So I don't have to dump out the entire bag now.
And you can get tool rolls now, which are quite convenient. They're quite nice. I've been around
for a long time. You roll it out and you've got your tools spread around on that. It makes a big
difference because like what you just described there, if you're having to dig for every socket,
you'll just drive yourself nuts. And it adds to the stress of a repair that we're doing already
because it's always stressful, isn't it? Especially if it's your bike. But not only that,
you'll lose stuff easier because you can't tell when it's gone. Exactly. So I have a couple of
rags I'll take with me so I can lay out parts as I remove them. Yeah, I agree. So keep it organized
is really helpful. One of the things you can do to be prepared, and this has nothing to do with
your toolkit, is just do a little research on your model, your making model of bike,
and find out what are common issues with it. That could be a huge help, couldn't it?
Oh, big time. And it's not cutting up any brand, but there is no such thing as a perfect
100% reliable motorcycle for the lifetime of you owning it.
So general roadside and trail side repairs, I'm thinking of like
bent controls, loose bolts, things like that. Yeah. And we can offer some tricks on what we do with
bent controls. If it's aluminum, you just have to be very careful. And most levers on brake,
gear shift, throttle, or sorry, clutch and brake levers are aluminum now. And it'll take a little
bit of bend, but it'll also snap off. So you can decide, did you want a bent gear shifter that
was kind of a pain to get your boot in to shift up? Or did you want no gear shifter because you
tried to bend it. So you really have to be careful. I wanted to throw in a little note here about
towing, because of course you can call a tow truck, but that's not the towing I'm talking about.
I'm thinking about a bike that breaks down where you can't get it started. Still rolls and moves
fine, the brakes work and everything, but you can't get it running. And that's not an all and
uncommon scenario. If you find yourself in that situation, especially if you're in a place where
you can't get a tow truck in, your only opportunity maybe, or one of the only opportunities you may
have, especially if you're riding with friends, is to tow the bike out. And that is certainly
doable. It's easier probably than what many people think provided you have a decent way to tow it.
That's right. And that's where I used to have so much more money, Jim, before I started listening
to your show, because I keep hearing all these great products. So now I have the cycle pump. I
have all kinds of green chili stuff, including that tow strap. And I hope I've sold tons of them
for them, because it's a fantastic design. I've never come across that elastic rope in the middle
that takes the snap out of the tow. And we use it at every BMW course I teach to show people.
And I've yet to go on a big tour of those commercial trips I do with dual sport.
I've yet not to take my green chilies tow strap out. Oh, you've used it on every trip?
Every single one. But usually it's just to either tow somebody out of a ditch. And it's just too
steep and too hard to push the bike up with a couple of people. ADVX a couple years ago. I think
a guy got distracted. I really believe it was too dusty. And he went off a fairly steep incline
and was stuck. He couldn't get the bike back up. So it was very loose rock. So having a big bike up
top pulling gently as someone stood beside the bike and worked the clutch, he walked his bike out
first gear with me pulling. And that tow strap really helped there. The green chili adventure
strap or the green chili tow strap, green chili adventure gear tow strap has that, like you said,
the elastic part in the middle, but it's also made of strapping, which I guess has a certain
amount of give to it anyway. But it really makes towing nice. It's a good setup to have for sure.
But anyway, so if you're thinking you might tow or there's a possibility or you want to at least
be prepared for it, that's where that comes handy. When you're riding and changing weather, and this
is adventure riding, your mid layer matters more than most people think. And nothing I've tried
performs as well as my Perley's hugger sweater. It's made from 20% New Zealand possum for 70%
marina wool and 10% silk. And that blend is what makes it so good. These are natural fibers from
animals that live in the outdoors in real weather. And they do what good fibers are supposed to do.
They move moisture away from your skin, they regulate temperature, and they stay warm even
when they're damp. And the hugger is made especially for motorcyclists, it knitted in one piece. So
there's no seams bunching up under your jacket. It has a tall collar and a partial zip. It weighs
only about 10 ounces. And it packs incredibly small. I've worn mine for years now, and I still
haven't managed to wear it out on the bike around camp out for dinner. It's one of the best pieces
of gear that I carry. Perley's possum socks.com is a website anytime dealing with and throwing
the shirt them here and adventure rider radio. Perley's possum socks.com. And it's the Perley's
hugger. If you've ever tried putting together a camping kit for your motorcycle, you know how
much trial and error there is. A lot of outdoor stores carry outdoor gear, but they're not choosing
it from a motorcycle camper's point of view. Motocamp Nerd is. Motocamp Nerd is the motorcycle
camping store. Ben and Mary Williams are riders themselves. They built the store around one
simple idea. Pack small, camp easy. Everything they stock is chosen because it works for motorcycle
travel. Pack small enough to make sense on the bike and yet holds up to life on the road. So
instead of guessing or buying something that ends up being too bulky for your pannier, you're
dealing with people who already understand the problem. They've got a real store in Archdale,
North Carolina. They stock the gear themselves and online orders shipped quickly. Motocampnerd.com
is a website. Pack small, camp easy. Anytime you deal with them throwing this, you'll hear them
here on adventure rider radio. Motocampnerd.com. So let's cover, let's talk about some of the
things that we don't think about when we think toolkit. I mean, you could even work at home
doing your toolkit and I think you'll miss a lot of what you're about to talk about.
Yeah. Something simple that most people don't pack with them is a first aid kit. Just in case.
I've seen people injure themselves working on a bike. I carry both like the gloves you'd use
in a first aid kit. If you get some heavy duty pair, they're great if you have to install a
chain or work on a chain because if you're using your bare hands, imagine grimy, greasy,
hard to get clean after. If you don't have hand cleaner with you, then you're putting your nice
riding gloves back over those horrible hands. So I have a lightweight pair of very thin motocross
gloves and that's when I use for changing tires, brakes, chain, whatever. So any sort of work
glove or a leather glove for that matter, sharp edges, heat, dirt, all of that is covered with
glove. Yeah, exactly. Another thing is I'm lucky when we go to the Yukon in June because it doesn't
get dark, but in Baja, when we go in March by seven o'clock, eight o'clock to eight thirty,
it's pitch black and we were stuck out in that desert trail fixing bikes and luckily I have
a little headlamp and I can put it around my forehead and then I have two hands to work on
something. I don't have to have somebody holding the light on their phone. It's very small and very
cheap item. Yeah, and I have one that's such a tiny little one. I think it's Petzl and it's
in a little case. It's very, very tiny. It uses watch batteries. So I have a couple spare batteries
stuffed in there with it, but so just for an emergency and even if it's light out, you may
still need a light to look in at something. You know, you're trying to look in the tank
or maybe look into the tank or whatever. There's times where a headlamp can be really handy. So
I have this really tiny one and it's in my kit all the time. And like you said, the real, I think,
huge advantage aside from the light is hands-free. You're able to tilt your head to get the light
in the right spot and use your hands. You've made the joke before about your dad always saying,
you're in my light. You're in my light. That's so true. I think every kid has heard that.
What else? Another thing I've packed since I've aged is foam pads. Those foam pads are perfect
for protecting my knees. And all you do is stick it on the back, just on your seat. I mean, it's
also handy if you stop somewhere for something to eat or break. You can sit on it. So I mean,
it's quite a handy thing to have. And I do know one of our instructors packs,
it's like a ground sheet, an old ground sheet from a tent. And he can use it as, I got tarp,
he'll bungee cord it to his part of his bike and it's covering them if he has to work on the bike
and it's raining and or it can be on the ground and you're less likely to lose tools and parts
if you can place them on something. What I do with that is I just use the cheap tarps that
you get at any one of these stores. You buy a cheap small like a five by six tarp and that's
what I'll use to kneel on. I have one that I kneel on and because it'll get holes in it from
kneeling on it and working on it and get grease on it and stuff. And then I have a lightweight,
like they call them sill nylon, but it's a very lightweight tarp that you can put up. I think
a tarp is hugely important because you put it over the bike when you're, if it was raining,
you can cover yourself from wind, you can cover yourself from sun. There's so many uses for a
tarp and a little bit of rope. Yeah, sounds great. Do you take like a little later or something?
Because I've used that many times to loosen parts up to start a fire, all kinds of things.
Yeah, I always carry one. The one that I like to carry, and I always tell people about this,
I don't know why I'm such an evangelist for them because I don't get paid from them,
is the Zippo lighter. The Zippo lighter is really handy because you can carry fuel in a container,
first of all, that goes along in your pack and you get them very small containers and you always
know how much you have in it. It always seems to work, but the real important things I find with
the Zippo is you can light it and you can set it down and then use two hands to do something.
If you're melting something, heating something up, and when you're done with it, when you close it up,
you can throw it in your pocket. Like with a big lighter, if you light it and use it for very long
and put it in your pocket, you're going to get burnt real bad because the metal on it's hot.
The Zippo has the lid that folds over, so I find the Zippo is really handy and I put a couple of
spare flints in the bottom where you put your fuel in, but the Zippo lighter is just so dependable
for me. I've used it for light as well, like if I couldn't see, there's so many uses for it.
Anyway, so that's my Zippo pitch. That's a good idea. I carry, you've heard me talk about it before,
the siphon hose. That's been really helpful on the side of the road where I've run out once,
but usually I'm helping someone else. So you're siphoning fuel out of one for another,
and we've talked about that as far as the fuel siphon. They've got those shaker siphons where
it's got those right. So you can do that. I also have, and it's more for tires,
but I have a little canister. Remember, film, Jim, your grandparents would remember.
No, I remember. They're little black cases with a gray cap, and I used to be a photographer,
so there's hundreds of them kicking around here, and I fill it with the tire loop that I use for
helping install tubes, or tires rather, and it's very, very small. It doesn't take up much space,
but boy, try putting a dry tire on a rim. It's really difficult. I think that's a really good tip.
What else? I have four or five little ziploc bags, some big freezer bags. The big freezer bag I used
at a rally once a guy watered his bike out, and we didn't. We're out in the middle of nowhere.
Four guys there, we had one guy had a liter of oil in his backpack because his bike burned oil,
so we were able to drain out the water oil, put it in this monster freezer bag, real heavy duty one,
so we weren't dumping the oil out into the forest, and used the one liter and it got this guy's dirt
bike out. That's the only time I've used that great big one, but small ones are great for putting
little parts in. I actually carry some fuses and common little torques, nuts, our sorry, screws,
and I carry them in those little ziplocs. Yeah, I think that's really handy. When you're taking
stuff apart and there's dirt and you're working in like an uncontrolled environment,
to say the least, it's so easy to lose screws, bolts, nuts. I think that's a great idea. Put
them in a ziploc. You can seal the ziploc and see what you've got. Ziploc takes no space,
and it can be used for other things too. That's great. The other thing is I'm done,
and I sometimes with the work gloves on, you don't have that fine dexterity to tighten a little,
install a little screw or something, so I'll take the glove off. Without fail, my hands are dirty,
so I have a very small packet of hand wipes. They're hand cleaner wipes, and you don't take
a great big tub of them, but that's really handy. I keep them in the tank bag just in case my hands
get dirty. Oh, like your wet wipes. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Oh, I see. Yeah,
that's good because it can be used for other things too. Yeah, and they're actually
help take the grease off my hands before I put them back in my nice gloves. Yeah.
And then for me, my wife, for instance, doesn't even eat breakfast. She has a lunch around 11.
I need three meals a day. Sometimes like a hobbit, I love second breakfast.
So my tank bag's got lots of granola bars, maybe an apple, a bit of fruit from the motel I'm leaving
if they have that buffet breakfast type thing. And so some snacks just in case,
and it does a lot not only to replenish your blood sugar, but I'm, you know, you're depressed,
your bike broke, whatever you fixed it, you know, a little snack, especially if there's some chocolate
in it, your enthusiasm goes back up. I love touring, and you'll have another granola bar.
And it also gives you a few minutes to sit there and think about things, doesn't it? You know,
sort of, okay, let me assess this and come up with my best plan of action. Yeah. And I think
that's really good. And that's where you could use your ziplocks, because if you're staying at a
hotel that has a continental breakfast, you just take your ziplock and fill it with some sort of
cereal. Yes, that's a great idea. I haven't done that, but that's a good idea. I just thought
of it when you were saying it. Yeah. And then we always have, I carry quite a bit more water with
me because we have those little stoves. So we'll make coffee out in the barrens where there isn't
coffee shop. And so we need water for these little stoves we have.
So as far as your, like when we talk about the general repairs, so like,
general repairs would be like if you had a, you know, a crash or, you know,
something got caught in your chain or what, there's so many different things. You can't
even come up with them all. Often it has to do with dropping a bike or going down or something
like that. Something's bent, broken, et cetera, those type of tools. And I'm thinking duct tape,
JB Weld stuff. What would you carry in that kit? In mine I have zip ties, some tiny little ones,
some medium and some big honking ones. They're probably a foot and a half long. They're quite
thick, but they're really strong. So I've used them post crash repairing saddlebags where the
saddlebag mount is actually broken off the frame and, you know, don't want to leave it behind
and you need all that stuff that's in there so I can resecure these heavy bags to the frame with
these really big, long, strong zip ties. Yeah. You can even get stainless steel ones. If there
was an exhaust issue or something close to the exhaust, the stainless steel ones can be used
and they won't melt. Yes. Had a great invention. Whoever came up with zip ties, but it's really
handy in repairs. I even used two of them once the throttle cable broke and it broke up at the
hand throttle. So I pulled the cable out. The outer sheath of the cable I secured to the handlebar
and the broken end of the cable I secured with a zip tie to the hand grip to the outside of the
hand grip and I had a throttle to get me home. Oh, that's good. That's ingenious. Yeah, that's great.
Gorilla tape. I love that. Not a great big monster roll, but a small roll and it can put windshields
or body panels back together, hold things on. It's really strong, but when you pull it back off,
it doesn't leave the sticky residue of duct tape. Oh, you mean the gorilla tape itself,
because I was going to say it doesn't leave it long enough, but maybe not with that type. I don't
know. Now, here's, I'll throw in this little bit. Here's where that Zippo lighter and the extra fuel
comes in because that little fuel container, the lighter fluid is great for cleaning a surface.
So if you want to really stick the duct tape to something really, really well,
you clean it with a bit of lighter fluid and your little rag, wipe it off and you've got a
perfectly clean surface to put your duct tape on. It'd be handy with JB welding an engine component
where there's oil residue. The bike crashes, there's a little crack or a hole in the side cover of
the engine. The JB weld is not going to work unless you can get the residue of that oil off.
Just won't stick. Hey, before we leave JB weld, there's a bunch of different JB welds out there.
Oh my goodness. There's some that you just break off and twist together. There's the tubes that
just squeeze it out. What do you carry? I use the rolls. It's a stick. So the hardener is the black
core and you tear a bit off and you knead it in your hand. The heat from your hand
will meld the two, the core and the outer together and it kind of goes gray. And I buy one that has
heat so I can use it on engines. So one's a high heat one? Yes. And it'll work on anything else
that isn't high heat. But you can get JB weld for plastic, no glass or metal. So it's pretty
diversified. But the one I carry is for engines, the high heat one. Okay. And that's like you said
that's a stick that you need together between your fingers. You should work it together to mix
the components. That's when you'll want your gloves because that will make your hands black
by the time you're done. It will. And it's just cleaner and neater for me than the
traditional JB weld I carried for 25 years was the two tubes. One is the hardener and you mix
them together with a stick or something. And they have different curing times too. So when you're
getting it, you want to look and see what the curing time is. If the curing time is six hours,
well, that's a little bit long for sitting and doing repair. I mean, it'll work but
long time. Yeah, I made that mistake, not reading the label well enough. And in the Yukon,
I fixed a hole in a guy's engine and it just, it wasn't hardening up. And then I read the
instructions six hours, which wasn't very practical. I also carry safety wire. You can get that in
different gauges, but it's designed really for the race track where they don't want like an oil
drain plug or a rad cap or something on the engine to vibrate loose and you put rad fluid or oil on
the track. And what they do is drill a very fine hole through the cap and safety wire to the engine
or the frame so it can't. So it's quite strong wire. It will break if you twist it enough,
but I've used it so many times to repair crash damage. Right. So you can wrap it around something
and use your pliers to twist it up to tighten it all up. Yes, exactly. And you just put the two ends
together, hold the pliers tightly and spin them. Yeah. What wire is it that you're using? Because
there's all different kinds of that wires. I mean, you can get metal or stainless steel or
the stainless steel when I like, cause then, you know, if I have an old bike where I've repaired
the housing where the headlight speedometer assembly mounts to the bike, that broke in a crash before
I bought it. And then rather than spend the money on it, I just drilled fine holes and safety
wired it together. So it's been on there for 10 years. I want the stainless steel wire so it
doesn't rust. Yeah. You stitch it all together. And there you said about JB Weld. You could put
JB Weld on top of that to make it even stronger. And no one would know. Yeah. You're right. I should
do that. Okay. What else? Electrical tape because there's a little bit of stretch to it. It's fairly
sticky, but it's not huge. So I'll repair electrical things with it. If I have to put wires together
and I don't have a soldering gun, but it's been really handy. Just a small roll of black electrical
tape. And in that same vinyl bag, I've got extra fuses, a tiny bag with the valve core removing
tool and a few spare valves. Because they're on a spring, aren't they? We've talked about this when
we did tires. I've loosened the valve and it goes boing out into the gravel. And now what are you
going to do? You could put the cap back on without a valve stem, but it won't hold air. Even the
steel ones, it'll leak around the threads. Yeah. So what I did was put the steel cap back on and
JB welded it and it did lose air, but extremely slowly it got me out. That's really good. But
a spare valve stem is very important to me now because that took a long time to fix. I'll bet.
So what else do you have in there? That's it in that little vinyl thing and that's mostly crash
repair. Other than I have an awl and with my lighter, I can heat up the end of it. And if the
windshield, which is usually some kind of plexiglass, it's got a great big crack in it now from the
fall. What I'll do is do heat up that awl. Here, I use the little lighter and you've got a few
seconds of heat on the tip of the sharp object. And then I push it through the plexiglass of the
windshield and I make holes and then I can put the safety wires through the holes or even zip
ties and stitch it back together just to get the person home. And for those who don't know, an awl
is just kind of like a drill bit that you use by hand almost. Only it's much more aggressive than
that, but it will vary from a small hole and it tapers up to a bigger hole to its largest size.
It's very handy to have. I have one of my Swiss Army knife that I always carry, so I have that
with me. And I'm surprised how many times I've used that. Yeah, it really helps. So is that
everything you have in there? Yeah, in that little bag, that's all my kind of crash repair stuff.
I like that crash repair bag kit, you know, so it can be even a separate tool kit.
What do you think about carrying a master link for those with chains?
Yeah, that's in my tire kit. That's kind of the drivetrain one. And in the garage, you
inspect your bike, either owner manual or Google it or get down on your knees and look.
Punched into the chain will be the size of it, five, 20, four, 28, whatever it is. So
having a spare master link for your bike will really help. I've even used them to repair
a damaged chain that didn't have a master link. Their press fit on and what happened is this
chain had stretched out so much probably before the bike went on the tour that there was no adjustment
left and it kept coming off, which is very dangerous at speed. So what we did is cut
two links out of it with a file. That was a lot of work and then punch the rivets out and I put
it back together with a master link that was the same size. You needed a chain breaker kit for that?
Yeah, we didn't have one. So we had a very small hammer and a little tiny punch and I carry a
small file. It's only six inches, but it's really good. And I use that all the time.
So I'm also thinking about tools that may not be included. In other words, if you
take your wheels off at home and you do a tire change at home and you figure, okay,
these are the tools I need. Some tools may not show up. And one that I'm thinking of
is pliers, for instance. They don't actually show up until you need them. And I was thinking
they would go more in that crash kit, like needle nose pliers, slip joint pliers, those type of
things. Yeah, I've got my little pliers. It's labeled pliers and there's only three of them in
there, a needle nose, vice grips and side cutters. Pliers are really handy. Another tip that we can
throw in here is that when you're taking something apart, if you're not real familiar with it,
it's a good idea to take out your phone and snap a photo of it. Oh, great idea.
So you can remember how it goes back together. Yes, great idea. Use the phone to take pictures
of stages of disassembly. That'll help you put it back together. Yep. And everybody has their
phone with them. So why not use it? Yeah, that'd be great. And there's usually lots of helpers
standing around too. I love that. Anything else that we didn't cover here that you think we missed?
I think that's it. Other than the best tool you got with you is your brain. When something breaks
side of the road, you know, you can't panic. You know, is the area you're going to work on safe?
Get the thing way off the road. If I'm on a corner, I do not like that. Cars coming around on the
wrong side. I've put bikes into ditches before that I could get back out of to work on it.
So your calmness and patience is the best tool you have.
Well, that is great stuff, Clinton. Thank you so much. My pleasure.
That was Clinton Smout from the Smart Performance Center in Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
Clinton is the chief instructor. They offer courses in motorcycle, ATV, side by sides,
and snowmobile operation as well as tours. Their website is smartperformancecenter.ca.
And as always, we have photos and links in the show notes. You can find those at our website
at ventureriderradio.com. Look at the show notes for this episode. Coming up, we're going to take
a quick look at a commercial toolkit that approaches this from the other side, a compact
built kit for specific motorcycles that'll probably save you a lot of time and hassle
in building your own toolkit. And it'll also give you a base to build out from there if you want to.
Stay with us.
Go light, go fast, go far. That's Giant Loop Moto. What I like about Giant Loop is that they seem
to understand something that I think a lot of gear companies miss, that the stuff that you carry on
your bike should help the ride, not take it over. Too often, luggage adds bulk and weight and straps
flying around and a whole bunch of nonsense that you never use. Giant Loop goes the other way.
Their gear is built to be lighter, simpler, and purpose built. So you carry what you need
without making your bike feel overloaded and awkward. They've got everything from
rackless luggage to panniers, tank bags, dry bags, and some really nice fuel and water storage
solutions. If you want gear designed for travel, discovery, you know, real motorcycle use,
have a look at Giant Loop Moto. GiantLoopMoto.com. Anytime you're dealing with them, throw them
at your heard them here on Adventure Rider Radio. GiantLoopMoto.com. One of the first things that
I do on a bike is change the foot pegs. Because once you stand up off road, the connection between
your boots and the bike matters. IMS products foot pegs give you more leverage, more control,
and a larger platform that just feels better all around. It's a simple mod, but the difference
is huge. IMSproducts.com. Anytime you're dealing with them, throw them at your heard them here
on Adventure Rider Radio. IMSproducts.com. So once you've figured out what jobs your toolkit needs
to cover, the next question is, how do you carry it in a way that's compact, organized, and practical
on the bike so that you can open it up and see your tools and use them without having to dig through
some bag? Not everybody wants to build a toolkit from scratch. So I also wanted to look at one
commercial toolkit designed around the same idea. This one I really like. Matt Koontz is one of the
founders of Obsidian Adventure Gear. Matt, welcome to Adventure Rider Radio.
Thrilled to be here. Quite an honor actually. Thank you very much. So you've been listening
to the show for a while, I gather. Yeah, actually, you've had a big influence on my motorcycle world.
I who I hang out before you go any further. Is this a good influence or a bad influence? I just
want to go down this road. It is. It is good. I'm okay. So I've got one of your toolkits here,
which is quite a nice package and I'm holding my hand right now. It's it's sort of a material
package, which I guess is water resistant, but with a zipper closure and a bunch of straps or
stitching a molly design on the outside. So when I open it up here, it's these kits, as you said,
they're made for specific models. So I first wanted to ask about that. So what are you building
these kits to do? Like in other words, if someone gets one for their model, what would they expect
to be able to do from the tools in this kit? Our goal was to have that be as comprehensive as
possible. The only thing that's really model specific about our kits is the wheel removal
attachments, because that varies quite a bit. The axle nut and what else? Exactly. Exactly.
And that's what it comes down to is is is, you know, there's depending on the type of suspension
you have. And of course, the bike model, there's so many different ways that the the wheel axles are
configured. That's the model specificity about the kit. And so if you had two different kits side by
side for two different models, the only difference is going to be the wheel removal attachments that
come with the kit that will be more specific to your bike. And the reason is because what we found
is that the fastener types that are used on any given bike, you might have a KTM that uses
Torx style fasteners throughout the bike, but you're going to have accessories that you mount
that are aftermarket accessories that don't use those. So we've made sure that outside of the wheel
removal and install attachments that we have with the kit, everything else is very comprehensive
and more universal. And so I don't want people to think that, oh, if I buy this kit for my tenore,
it's not going to work on on my buddy's KTM. Outside of maybe those wheel attachments, you
know, removal attachments, the kit is going to be universal that way. Yet there is plenty of room
to customize that kit because there are going to be those things that you want to bring with you,
whether it be some JB weld steel stick or zip ties or whatever.
No, this kit that I'm looking at right now in front of me is for a BMW F 900, which has a huge 34
millimeter nut size on the rear axle to get the wheel off. So what you've done is you've designed
this. And as you're saying, these are different sized for each individual motorcycle. It's a small
socket end or wrench end that fits in your hand. This thing is not very long at all. And it clips
into this thing that you said is your sort of your centerpiece tool, which is almost like what I
would describe as a flat ratchet with two ratchet positions. One is close to the center and one is
close to the end. And then the end is open on one end where you slip in the actual wrench end,
which is a box and wrench closed wrench for the actual nut, which works. So I was pleased to
find this out. This actually works and works quite well. And you just disconnect it to put in a
different tool. So what is the point of redesigning this ratchet?
Well, you know, there's nothing broken about a traditional ratchet. In fact, I've had extensive
discussions with different customers of ours who've asked us questions and, you know, making
buying decisions. And I'm usually very clear to say, look, there's nothing broken about the tools
you have now. And you'll never hear us disparage somebody who has a big bundle of garage tools.
But if you look at a ratchet, we've basically just designed a way to sort of disassemble the
bulkiness of a ratchet by, you know, having that square drive being a removable piece. And it just
comes out of the base handle unit and stores in that little section where it fits. And so you
achieve an extremely thin design that just really lends itself well to packing. And then,
again, like, you know, the large wrenches that you would need for an axle nut,
it becomes a small attachment that goes into the end of that handle. And then you have essentially,
you know, that functionality, but without carrying around a very large wrench. And so
the goal again was weight reduction, bulk reduction, without sacrificing functionality.
And so we've leaned into this modularity concept of having components serve multiple functions
instead of when you think about a wrench, you know, that you use in your garage, it has one
single purpose. But so we've tried to incorporate a lot of a lot of useful purpose out of each
component. So this this flat ratchet is a is a ratchet, but it's also the mount for it's the
handle for the wrench, but it's also handled for a couple other things that I'll get to in a few
minutes here. So when it comes to the the kit, though, like as far as what you're going to do
with it, do you actually think about it? Did you guys plan this and say, okay, what are we going
to be able to repair with this? Within reason like, is there a baseline saying, okay, I want to be
able to change my own, I want to take both wheels off, I want to be able to remove both calipers?
What was there something like that that all of you have in mind? Yeah, all the above. In fact,
my my personal testing of this was I picked up a $500 old KLR and I dismantled that bike top
to bottom with this toolkit, kind of as a as a test, just personally, I wanted to put it through
the paces. And to make sure that, you know, when I'm dealing with things that are higher torque,
frame bolts, you know, things like that, that it had, it had the strength behind it. I knew Brandon
had designed in the strength capacity, I just wanted to know for certain that, you know, I had a good
user experience, because if I was going to promote it, I need to have confidence in it.
This flat ratchet, I want to call it just a, what do you call, is there a name for this?
Yeah, we call it the base handle unit. And it's kind of the basis of the modularity
behind the whole tool system. But the one other thing I wanted to ask you about,
which is in your toolkit, which is not part of a toolkit in my mind at all,
is you decided to include a saw. Talk about that.
So that's another thing that Brandon was really, he's kind of a perfectionist in a good way,
you know, maybe mechanically, you know, being a mechanical engineer, he's, that's just the way
he thinks. And I was like, Brandon, you have to understand like this saw is so cool, because I've
used it, and it works really well. And it just, it becomes an additional attachment that slips
into the base handle unit. But there is, here's, here's my favorite part about the saw. And this
is not just obvious to the first person that grabs our kit and takes a look, is with the tools that
you have, you can actually undo the way the saw is mounted inside the little adapter. And we use
standardized reciprocating saw blades so that you can basically pick any reciprocating saw blade up
at a hardware store and apply it to that kit. Okay. I was going to ask you about this. I went to
Walmart and I picked up a little four inch metal cutting reciprocating saw blade. And so I've got
that in my kit. And then if I ever have a situation where I need to cut, you know, I've got that
ability. And albeit it's not going to be a pleasant experience to try to hack saw through
something. But if you know, if you have a bent crash bar that is is hindering, you know, your
ability to ride the bike, you can cut your way through it. Oh, that's huge. That's huge. And so
yeah, there was some really good thought that went into that. And, and then making it useful
well down the road, you know, I thought this was a proprietary saw blade. I was going to say
that was the one thing I was going to say is that you need to be able to get extra saw blades in
case this one breaks. I didn't realize you could just undo it and replace it. But not only that,
this is a wood saw blade. If you can replace this with a metal saw, well, you can just throw that
extra saw blade in there. So that is a great addition. And I tried it and this thing works
great. I mean, and the thing is what the saw blade is, it's incredible when you get out there. And
if you ride any sort of trails anywhere off the beaten path, it's amazing how many times you come
across a branch, a tree, something across the road that you have to cut. Maybe you don't want to cut
a great big tree that's falling across the road, but this will certainly help you clear some out of
the way and get yourself moving again. So I like that. Well, I think you guys have done a great
job with this kit. Thank you very much, Matt, for coming on and talking about it. And I wish
you all the best with it. And a true honor, Jim. I really appreciate it. I love your show and
I appreciate the time being here. I was speaking with Matthew Koontz from Obsidian Adventure Gear.
And I really like this tool kit that they've made. If you're looking for a commercial one that's
already built for your bike, and it has room in it to add more things to it if you choose to.
And also one thing we didn't talk about, they have a hammer in their tool kit, which I just think is
a great addition. Anyway, their website is obsidianoriginal.com. We've got that link and
some photos and the show notes for this episode at our website, adventureriderradio.com.
So
best rest products at cyclepump.com. Anytime you're dealing with these companies or anything
you hear on Adventure Rider Radio, let them know you heard them here. And this show is built on a
model of advertising and listener support. The combination of the two, we'd really appreciate
if you go to adventureriderradio.com and click on support. Well, that about wraps up another episode
of Adventure Rider Radio, and we sure hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as we did making
it. Special thanks to our producer, Elizabeth Martin, and also thank you to the people who
support this show. It really is huge. We've got great patron supporters that are there for us
every month. We would really appreciate it if you're not doing that already, if you consider
doing it. The show is built on a model of advertising and listener support. We need your
support. Adventureriderradio.com and click on support. Well, time to get out there and ride
your bike if you can. My name is Jim Martin, and I will talk to you next week.
Hi, this is Zoe Cano and my Bonneville here in London, and you're listening to Adventure Rider Radio.

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